Search results

A building deteriorates over time due to aging, wear and tear, and inadequate maintenance. Building diagnosis requires a sound knowledge of engineering, building defects, and detection tools to assess the condition of a building. The physical deterioration of a building reduces its ability to perform its intended function, while environmental deterioration influences the comfort and health of building occupants. This study presents a multi-tiered framework for the inspection of building elements and the environmental conditions of a building.

A three-tiered building inspection framework is proposed in this study, which consists of the following: Tier-I—a preliminary inspection, Tier-II—a detailed inspection, and Tier-III—an expert investigation. Each tier of inspection assesses the severity of building defects using different technologies for different levels of inspection.

Proposed multi-tier inspection framework is tested and implemented on a case study. Results were promising, with organized data management on a common platform for both physical and environmental condition inspection having the potential to save time.

The application program developed for the implementation of structured multi-tiered building inspection provides better documentation and data management for building inspection data that can save time involved in manual data operations in traditional paper-based processes.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a concise overview of the problem of building decay in Hong Kong, the current government measures concerning dilapidated buildings and the latest development and implementation of the mandatory building inspection scheme (MBIS). A comparison of various MBISs from other jurisdictions of the world is also given.

A desktop study of building inspection procedures, repair and maintenance policies was carried out, followed by an industry-wide opinion survey conducted by means of self-administered questionnaires. Target respondents are within the construction community of Hong Kong. The perceived benefits, potential difficulties and insightful recommendations or good practices are investigated. A comparison of the relative ranking of individual mean scores from various groups of respondents is presented in this paper.

The execution of MBIS was found to be effective in enhancing public awareness of the importance of building upkeep and recognition of the property owner's legal responsibilities in this respect. Private property owners were made aware of the necessity to take holistic preventive measures to maintain the overall safety of their own buildings. A comparison of MBIS with other similar MBISs across different cities, revealed similarities as regards the inspection cycle, scope of inspection and qualifications of inspectors. The main difference related to the age rather than the height of target buildings.

Proper inspection and maintenance is necessary to keep buildings in good condition to avoid injury or loss of life due to sudden collapse of structures or their elements such as concrete spalling and fall of window frames. The official launch of MBIS on 30 June 2012 is one of the proposed effective measures to resolve the long-standing problems of building neglect and deterioration in Hong Kong with particular regard to the existing old private premises.

The execution of MBIS should be useful in improving the safety and health status of the dilapidated premises and in so doing safeguarding the residents and general public. To further identify the perceived benefits and potential difficulties of MBIS, and to suggest insightful recommendations or good practices for its successful future implementation, an opinion survey was launched among construction practitioners in Hong Kong between March and April of 2012.

This study aims to explore DroneSim, a virtual reality (VR)-based flight training simulator, as an alternative for real-world drone-mediated building inspection training.

Construction, engineering and management students were asked to pilot drones in the VR-based DroneSim space and perform common flight operations and inspection tasks within the spatiotemporal context of a building construction project. Another student group was also recruited and asked to perform a similar building inspection task in real world. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)–Task Load Index (TLX) survey was used to assess students’ inflight workload demand under both Real and DroneSim conditions. Post-assessment questionnaires were also used to analyze students’ feedback regarding the usability and presence of DroneSim for drone building inspection training.

None of the NASA–TLX task load levels under Real and DroneSim conditions were highly rated by students, and both groups experienced comparable drone-building inspection training. Students perceived DroneSim positively and found the VR experience stimulating.

This study’s contribution is twofold: to better understand the development stages involved in the design of a VR-based drone flight training simulator, specifically for building inspection tasks; and to improve construction students’ drone operational and flight training skills by offering them the opportunity to enhance their drone navigation skills in a risk-free, repeatable yet realistic environment. Such contributions ultimately pave the way for better integration of drone-mediated building inspection training in construction education while meeting industry needs.

The purpose of this paper is to review the four stages of approval and describe the process of building certification. It reviews a sample of the inspection and certification records of 109 houses in south‐east Queensland and analyses their progress through each of the stages. The incidence of minor faults and failures is examined, together with requests for further information. Trends in these incidents are enumerated, described and analysed with a view to improving the process.

Access to a private certifier’s inspection data base was given and 109 houses were randomly selected. All the houses were built in 2010 in south‐east Queensland from the Gold Coast, Brisbane and stretching up to the Sunshine Coast. The full range of inspections was conducted to completion. The records of each house inspection at each of the stages were examined, with the detailed notes of each inspection reviewed and analysed. The inspector’s notes were often extensive and detailed and the authors condensed these down into the main causes of problems in approval for that stage.

The results provide an insight into the process of building approval with documentation required to ensure its integrity and satisfactory completion. A summary of the results provides an insight into this performance.

The building control and certification system is working well and the regulations, codes and trained personnel are maintaining high standards of construction and safety.

Safer and better quality house construction should lead to greater consumer satisfaction and confidence in the community.

This is the first time that such a study of the private certification process has been undertaken in Australia.

This paper presents a reflection on the effectiveness of using drones in the technical inspection of building facades, as a practical alternative to more expensive and heavier conventional means. In order to verify this assumption qualitatively, a number of field tests are presented and discussed.

The first stage consisted of a literature review. The analysis initially investigated drone technology. Then, an insight into some general applications in Civil Engineering was compiled, focusing in particular on the Construction Industry (CI), as well as the scope of building envelope inspections. In the second stage, field tests with drones were performed and the resulting data was appraised in order to get facade pathologies diagnosis as accurate as possible.

Through this study, the adaptability and versatility of using drones were checked. Thus, it has been confirmed that drone technology is an effective and promising alternative methodology to support technical inspection and diagnosis of building envelope pathologies. In fact, drones seem to be a worthwhile tool for supporting certain Civil Engineering activities–particularly when displaying a multirotor configuration, loading high-definition (HD) cameras, for both stills photography and video.

As the main goal of this approach was simply a qualitative assessment of evidence on the advantages of using drones compared with conventional means, other kinds of comparative analysis were not discussed in depth. However, this and other potential restrictive issues may represent an opportunity to push more developments. A deeper knowledge of data handling and clear procedures for the use of drones could be very valuable for the CI and for building envelope inspections.

In investigating this subject, this research can offer valuable input to enable a greater awareness of the use of drones in the technical inspection of buildings, particularly in hard-to-reach locations, to the detriment of conventional means. In these circumstances, this methodology can bring great benefits, particularly from an environmental impact point of view, since the resources used are much lower. In addition, a very reliable diagnosis can be achieved more quickly, and at a much lower cost.

The introduction of a standard for drone inspection practice is still at an early stage, with initial steps being taken in an apparently well-focused effort to achieve consolidation. Research studies of this kind may have an important role to play in drawing the stakeholders' attention to the benefits of using this technique, particularly for those working in the building usage phase.

In order to ensure the health and safety of occupants, buildings must be inspected to check their compliance to current regulatory requirements prompted by occupancy changes, renovations and building code revisions. Recent inspections conducted by Public Works Canada have identified about 1700 occurrences of code violations in 19 buildings. There is an enormous amount of information that can be extracted from the study mentioned above to implement a knowledge‐based expert system to assist in future building inspections. The philosophy of this expert system is to integrate both knowledge‐based and hypertext representation techniques to enable building inspectors to quickly identify code violations, refer to the code text and provide case study information that can assist in resolving a problem. The present paper describes the development framework and details of a prototype implementation known as the Health and Safety Expert System (HASES). The HASES currently addresses the requirements of ‘Section 3.4: Requirements for Exits’ of the 1990 National Building Code of Canada. The software architecture consists of an external database of building details, an object hierarchy and a rule‐base representing the code requirements, hypertext user‐interface for code text and case study information. The ultimate objective is to make this system available for field inspections using notepad computers.

Relates how partnering between public and private participants can transform the process of obtaining construction permits and ensuring building code compliance into a co‐operative pursuit of common objectives. States use of partnering techniques between the Department of Inspections, Licenses and Permits (DILP) of Howard County, Maryland, and The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), a large research facility in Howard County. Argues that experience in designing and setting up a partnering process for building code compliance may be of interest to anyone with a large campus and a need to reconfigure and renovate space regularly; as well as to local officials responsible for monitoring building code compliance for such facilities: for example, large corporate and manufacturing facilities, hospitals, or college and university campuses.

This paper aims to review the current state of building decay in Hong Kong, and attempts to identify and analyze the perceived benefits of implementing the Mandatory Building Inspection Scheme (MBIS) via an industry-wide empirical questionnaire survey.

A total of 340 professional respondents who have gained hands-on experience in either new building works or building management or building repair/maintenance were requested to complete a survey questionnaire to indicate the relative importance of those benefits identified in relation to MBIS. The perceived benefits were measured, ranked and compared according to the different roles of industrial practitioners, and between the residents in private premises and those in public estates.

The survey findings suggested the most significant benefits derived from implementing MBIS to be: raise the overall building safety toward residents and the general public; create more job openings and business opportunities in building repair and maintenance services; and MBIS is an effective solution to address the problems with building decay (e.g. dilapidation and control over the existing unauthorized building works). The results of factor analysis indicated that the 13 perceived benefits of implementing MBIS were consolidated under three underlying factors: addressing building dilapidation and assuring building safety; improving the living environment and upgrading property values; and creating more job openings and business opportunities.

As MBIS was officially launched on June 30, 2012, it is expected to be one of the proposed effective measures in resolving the long-standing problems of building neglect and deterioration in Hong Kong and overseas, especially to those existing old private premises.

In the long run, the number of prematurely ageing buildings would be reduced, and the service life span of existing private premises would be prolonged. This is in line with the sustainability principle of providing a better living and the working environment within the community as a whole.

Describes the 1989 Building Control Act in Singapore, which requires most building owners to commission periodic structural inspections, offering opportunities for establishing a sound basis for national corporate whole‐life property asset management. Outlines the background to this legislation and its main provisions, and suggests how the survey process and data which will be available could benefit the government policy‐makers and individual owners in formulating and implementing planned maintenance strategies for Singapore′s largely new‐built stock.

This work aims to develop a web platform for inspecting roof structures for technical assistance supported by drones and artificial intelligence. The tools used were HTML, CSS and JavaScript languages; Firebase software for infrastructure; and Custom Vision for image processing.

This study adopted the design science research approach, and the main stages for the development of the web platform include (1) creation and validation of the roof inspection checklist, (2) validation of the use of Custom Vision as an image recognition tool, and (3) development of the web platform.

The results of automatic recognition showed a percentage of 77.08% accuracy in identifying pathologies in roof images obtained by drones for technical assistance.

This study contributed to developing a drone-integrated roof platform for visual data collection and artificial intelligence for automatic recognition of pathologies, enabling greater efficiency and agility in the collection, processing and analysis of results to guarantee the durability of the building.